


Trick or Treat

by MacShea



Category: Supernatural, The Tomorrow People (2013)
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Character Death, Everything is better at the end, F/M, Serious Emotional Triggers, Trickster Gods, Triggers, hint of suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-02 20:57:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16312586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MacShea/pseuds/MacShea
Summary: Ultra brings in a female, but she isn't what Jedikiah is expecting. Can he handle the life lessons a Trickster will show him?“So closed off,” she whispers. Tilting her head, she peers at him and makes a decision. “You truly intrigue me Price. So I’ll offer you a choice in the spirit of the Halloween season, a trick or a treat? Choose very, very carefully Dr. Price.”





	Trick or Treat

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: I really angst the hell out Jedikiah in this story and the story may contain triggers for character death, death of a child and hints of suicide. If any of this bothers you, please do not read. Thanks.
> 
> Plus, this is the first story I've uploaded in a few years. I proofed it but mistakes are mine.
> 
> *****
> 
> (This is not a Supernatural story. The characters of Supernatural do not appear here; however, since I've taken the liberty of using their mythology of the Trickster in the story, and placed Jedikiah in a sort of Changing Channels episode, I have included it in the Supernatural fandom. Also, I figured Lucifer fans would love a good Mark Pelligrino story.)

Jedikiah had never been so thankful to have a message appear on his cell phone as he did at that moment. Why he had agreed to this date was beyond him. Sure the woman was absolutely stunning, but her ability to hold any sort of conversation was as superficial as her intelligence was average. Excusing himself, he quickly made his way to the front of the restaurant, paid the bill and left the woman to finish her meal without any guilt over his departure. Something was happening at Ultra and required his immediate attention.

When he arrived he was greeted by one of his most trusted employees. “We brought in a female. She is in a holding room, but she is unlike anything we have ever encountered before.” Waving the man away, he located the monitor that showed the female sitting quietly at the table, unshackled. “Why is she unshackled?” he asked, his patients for sloppy work zero. Immediately he was shown on the monitor the woman being shackled, but within seconds she was free, and once again his agents returned to the room, and the prisoner allowed herself to be restrained only to free herself moments later with no explanation as to how she was accomplishing the feat. Nodding, he checked his firearm before entering the secured room.

Without looking at him, she started to talk. “I was hoping you would come. For the record, I’m humoring you because I’m curious,” she tells him crossing her arms.

“My name is Dr. Price. This is a government facility where we find and eradicate individuals such as yourself,” he tells her sitting down, but he doesn’t expect the laughter that he gets from the beautiful girl across from him, and shaking his head that wasn’t a thought he should have about a freak. Although, being honest with himself, her short purple hair and bright green eyes gave her a look of dangerous predator, but she was still exquisitely beautiful.

“You are seriously barking up the wrong tree,” she tells him snapping her fingers and producing a lollipop from thin air before sticking it into her mouth. Pulling it out she tells him, pointing at him with said lollipop, “You have no idea what I am and good fucking luck eradicating me.”

“How…” Jedikiah had to stop, he had never witnessed anything like this before.

“Sorry,” she asked, snapping her fingers again and producing an array of flavors in her hand. Holding them up she asked the doctor, “Did you want one? I promise they are organic and completely safe. You still haven’t satisfied my curiosity yet, and for your benefit you are quite attractive, so I promise for the time being you are quite safe.”

“What are you?” he asks, grabbing one of the candies to prove that they were real and not an illusion or hallucination.

Smirking, she tells him, “That’s for you to figure out Dr. Price. I can’t give up my mysteries easily or the game will end far too fast for both our liking.”

“Can I at least have a name?” he asks, unwrapping the candy and popping it into his mouth, the unexpected flavor dancing across his taste buds causing him to close him eyes for a moment to savor the flavor. When he finally opened his eyes, he witnessed a self-satisfied look pass over her face, and with a nod she acknowledged his request, “Eris.”

“As in Greek mythology?” he asks.

“Oh, I like you already,” she purrs, “Powerful, dangerous, attractive and intelligent. Wow, you just hit all the right buttons for a girl like me. So there must be a more comfortable place to talk?” she asks him.

“I can’t let you out of this cell, unless it’s without your powers or to another facility by armed guard,” he tells her leaning back in his chair to truly contemplate this enigma.

Sighing, she mimics his pose. “So Dr. Price, do you have a first name?”

“I do,” he tells her.

“So closed off,” she whispers. Tilting her head, she peers at him and makes a decision. “You truly intrigue me Price. So I’ll offer you a choice in the spirit of the Halloween season, a trick or a treat? Choose very, very carefully Dr. Price.”

Deciding to play her game for a moment, “Well, I already enjoyed the treat,” he answers her, “So I guess I’ll take the trick.”

Jedikiah watched her lift her fingers and snap.

**************

 

The knocking on the door startled Jedikiah awake. Sitting upright, he noticed that he must have dozed off while waiting for a report to finish running. Looking around he spotted his nephew taping his watch at him through the glass on the lab window and chuckled. Nodding in understanding, he hit save on the report and forwarded the information to his email so he could look over the information later after his family had gone to sleep.

Hanging up his lab coat, he joined Stephen outside and slid into the passenger seat. “Aunt Erin said to tell you that the garage called and your car will be done tomorrow,” Stephen lets him know as they back out of the parking spot in front of the research facility.

“That’s fine,” he tells his nephew. “How was basketball practice?” he asks as he enjoys the evening ride home. He never regretted taking Stephen and Luca in after Roger and Marla’s accident, having given the boys everything he could in a loving and happy home, especially after meeting Erin and all three of them falling for the quirky independent environmental photographer. She loved the boys as much as she loved him. Jed had thought his life was full until Erin had gotten pregnant, and they had brought a daughter into their lives. Holding Alena for the first time had brought him to his knees.

Walking into the house, he dropped his bag as he heard the running of little feet out the hallway as Alena ran to meet him.

“Daddy!” she yelled, as he scooped her up and listened to her giggle as he tossed her high, blonde pig-tails bouncing. Tucking her close, he carried her in search of his wife, asking questions of his three-year-old as they walked. “How was school?”

“We count,” she tells him, jumping excitedly in his arms, “One, two, free, four, five,” she sings to her father, “six, seben, eight, nine, ten.”

“Wow, listen to how smart you are,” he tells her.

“And,” she tells him, putting both little palms on his cheeks and turning his face to look at her, she whispers, “I color for you.”

“You did?” he whispered back as they walked into the kitchen and he spotted Erin at the table setting out plates. She was leaning over to reach the far side of the table and he was immediately reminded of why he was an ass man.

“I help!” Alena yelled causing Jed to chuckle as he placed her onto the floor so she could race over to her mother. Erin had been waiting for the announcement and had left the spoons to be placed around the table. Handing them to the toddler, she walked over to Jed. “Hey honey, how was work?”

Pulling her close and bringing their lips together, he mumbled “Productive.”

As the evening progressed, Jed interacted with his family and slowly relaxed. He wasn’t sure why he felt like this wasn’t his life, or why things like doing the dishes with Erin felt like new experiences. Shaking his head, he finally sat and watched some TV with his nephews until Alena crawled onto his lap with her blanket and a book. “Bedtime already?” he gently asked her, as he stood up to make the simple climb up the stairs to his daughter’s bedroom, passing Erin as she was leaving the bathroom from cleanup from Alena’s bath. Dropping a kiss to his wife’s mouth, he whispered, “I got her tonight.”

Sitting down in the rocker, he allowed Alena to get comfortable before tucking her blanket around her and opening her book. He loved nights like this, when he got the opportunity to snuggle with her before she fell asleep. As they rocked together in her bedroom and he finished her story, he could feel her getting heavy in his arms. Laying the book down, he gently kissed the top of her head and whispered, “I love you baby.”

“I wuv you daddy.”

As Eris watched him rocking his daughter to sleep that night, she decided on the next step.

*****

 

Pulling the female body tighter against him, Jedikiah opened his eyes and found himself in his bedroom. He was immediately hit with feelings of grief and remorse when he realized that the glimpse of family life he had enjoyed had all been a dream. Trying to remember the night before, he had memories of a dinner party, becoming possessively pissed watching the way Erin flirted her way through several conversations as he was engaged in political talks with the Vice President and Secretary of State, returning home in the limo, and finally dominating his wife’s body by sexually taking her apart and reminding her of whom her body belonged.

Glancing at the clock, he was tempted to repeat the last part before starting his day when his cell phone started beeping beside the bed. Grabbing the offending object, he noticed that he had several missed messages. Clicking the first one it read: Bio agent released as ordered, results pending.

Jed racked his brain as he sat up in bed, allowing the sheet to pool at his waist, trying to remember what bio agent he had authorized. Then he started to recall pieces of the conversation last evening with the Vice President and Secretary of State.

“Yes Sir, complete eradication of the _Homo superior_ species,” he’d told them. “Biological retro virus that targets only those individuals who possess the gene and will cause immediate shut down of all vital systems.”

“Hero to your country and species,” the Vice President had told him with a hand shake and a grin. “Green light to all Ultra agencies both domestic and abroad to release the virus.”

Moving down through the messages, Jed found that the virus was a success, but the messages became increasingly more panicked. The last two were the worst, “Millions dead, worldwide chaos” and “Act of bio terrorism, genocide”.

Grabbing his remote, he turned on his television to immediately be greeted with the sight of news reports of thousands if not millions of bodies lying dead in the streets in every major city around the world. Reports of bio terrorism and acts of treason, declaration of war against the United States if the person responsible is not turned over to the United Nations within 24-hours. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. The local news took over and the news station cut to the local school where people stood by while student’s bodies were being loaded into vans for removal, and Jed watched as Stephen’s body was carried out and tossed into the back of a van.

Sobs shook his body as he reached over to finally wake Erin and was met with the touch of cold flesh. Screaming her name, he rolled her over onto her back, he shook her trying to wake his wife only to realize that she was dead, the virus he had created had killed the one person in this world he had loved more than any other.

Through his screams he could hear the knocking start on his apartment door and knew that everything had fallen apart, his life was over. Grabbing his gun out of the holster, Jedikiah made a decision and as the door was kicked in a shot rang out.

******************

 

“Senator,” Jediakiah was jolted awake as the tapping on his window became more insistent, “Senator Price.”

Rolling down his window, he pinched the bridge of his nose as he squinted against the fading sunlight. “Yes,” he groaned.

“Sorry Senator,” the younger man hurriedly said, handing him a folder through the opened window. “The CDC sent that twenty year report you wanted on the vaccine suppressant therapy for the _Homo superior_ gene. And your wife called and asked me to fill your migraine medication sir,” he finished handing Jed a pill bottle and a fresh hot coffee. “Have a good night sir.”

Waving the young man off, Jed looked over the medication bottle and recognized the prescription. Swallowing one of the pills with an amazing sip of coffee, he rested his head back for a few minutes and sorted through his thoughts. What the fuck was happening to him? He wasn’t sure if he was coming or going and couldn’t remember the last few hours. He must have dozed off, but the dreams were starting to haunt him. Did he really just dream he had killed millions of people? Glancing down at the report in his hands, he remembered his time at Ultra. He knew that at one point in his life he had done things that would cause many to label him a monster, but after meeting his wife, he had decided that gene suppression therapy as a childhood vaccine would stop the spread of the breakouts and end the need for the violence.

Opening the report, he feels his phone beep and checks the screen. Smiling when he sees his daughter’s picture he answers, “Hello Alena.”

“Hi daddy, do you think you could pick me up from Jenny’s house. I have a bit a headache and don’t want to drive? Her mom said I could get my car tomorrow.”

“Sure thing sweetheart, I’m leaving the office now, so be ready in about 15 minutes,” he tells her.

“Thanks daddy.”

Ending the call, he returns to the report. The CDC summarized the detailed report for him and currently, approximately 95% of all children worldwide according to the World Health Organization were being vaccinated, and reports were steady that less than 1% of all children found to have the gene were rejecting the vaccine resulting in lethal complications. Scientists were as yet uncertain why some rejected the vaccination and others did not and why all medical attempts to save the lives of those who did reject, failed. Those who did fail typically failed between ages 15 to 17 and were relatively healthy. They came from all walks of life, social classes, races, ethnic backgrounds, lifestyles, and had nothing that could connect them. The symptoms started simple enough, headaches, blurred vision, nose bleed, which then lead to severe intracranial hemorrhage as lesions appeared on the brain eventually causing irreversible brain damage, coma and death. Onset of symptoms to time of death varied from several hours to 3 days usually depending on attempted medical care.

Closing the report as the car stopped, he waited as Alena joined him in the back of the limo. “Headache any better?”

“No,” she tells him, “Have I ever mentioned that I hate inheriting your migraines?”

Tossing her his prescription bottle, he tells her, “Here, your mom had mine refilled today. If you take one now, it will lessen the duration.”

When they arrived home, Jed and Alena were both greeted to the scent of homemade chicken soup. Grinning at his daughter, he tells her, “I think your mom had an idea that we both needed something simple but healthy tonight.”

“Awesome,” she smiles at him, “I hope she made bread.”

As they sat and ate, Jed watched his daughter as she continued to appear to get worse. First he noticed that she was having some problems picking up her spoon and then she appeared to miss her cup when she reached for it. As he continued watching, he noticed a small trail of red appear under her nose until it reached her lip and dripped off onto the white tablecloth.

“Alena?” he questioned, as he noticed Erin stand up to grab a napkin and walk over to their daughter. As Erin dabbed at the bloody nose, she tipped their daughter’s head up to inspect how badly she was bleeding, both she and Jed watched as the other side started to bleed.

“Jed?” Erin questioned looking terrified as she glanced at her husband as their daughter’s nose began to bleed profusely.

Jed held his wife as they listened to the doctor’s tell them the news as their daughter lay in the bed behind them. The beeps of machines the only sound coming from the silent bed. “Your daughter’s brain is hemorrhaging. I’m am sorry Senator, Mrs. Price, she is one of the rare few who is rejecting a childhood vaccine called…”

 “I know what it is,” Jed tells the doctor, as he turns to watch his daughter die, “I created it.”

 ***********

 

When Jed turned to look at Erin he noticed that they were no longer in the hospital, instead they were in a richly lit marble temple decorated in white and gold, lit with torches. Looking down at himself he was dressed in a Grecian style toga and could hear a lyre playing somewhere nearby. Walking toward the area where the light appeared brightest, he rounded a corner and found himself surrounded by decadence. Men and women in states of dress and undress laughing and eating and fucking. The music and sounds were almost too much for him to bear. As he tried to take a step back he was met with a hand on his back.

“Shh,” the owner of the voice said, and the feminine hand slid down the center of his back and around his waist as the body appeared around his side. She was dressed in a short female toga with gold encircling her upper arms. Her hair was longer and hung in beautiful purple waves around her body, but her eyes still flashed that bright dangerous green.

“Erin,” he whispered.

“Eris,” she corrected, and Jed was immediately reminded of everything that had happened to him. Hitting his knees hard off the marble floor, he clutched his head with both hands as the feelings and memories rushed back to flood him with grief and sadness and longing.

“Why?” he ground out.

“You asked for a trick, and I granted your request. I also told you to choose carefully. I am a goddess of discord and chaos, a trickster by nature Jedikiah. Shall we stay on Olympus and dine with the gods as a treat for surviving my game, or would you prefer a quieter reward?” she asks, running her hands through his blonde hair, but still standing over his kneeling form.

“I can’t,” he finally found enough voice to whisper.

“As you wish,” she told him and with a snap the noise vanished.

Opening his eyes, he was greeted with a sight of vast forests, a river, waterfall in the distance. The clearing he stood in stood full and bright with wildflowers and insects. “Where are we?” he asks as he turns to look at the lack of anything industrial as far as he could see. It was for lack of a better word, pristine.

“A long time ago before humans over ran the earth and destroyed it,” Eris tells him from her perch on a fallen tree. “Before the poisons ran thick in the air and water, and toxins filled the ground. Before entire forests were eradicated to find living space for the human species. The same species you are trying to save at the expense of destroying another.”

“What would you have of me?” he asks coming to stand before her. “Allow a paranormal species to dominate the earth?”

“Look around Jed, do you really think _Homo sapiens_ are really doing such a great job?” she asks flicking her hand out. “I would ask you to consider this question, are you a speciest or a humanitarian? Are you out for the betterment of the world as a whole or destruction for the sake of fear and unknown? You are an evolutionary biologist, and you have to understand the need for advancement of a race because without change and adaptation death of a stagnant species will occur.”

“I feel like Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve,” he chuckles at her, but the sound lacks any humor. Finally he takes a seat beside her overlooking the forest.

“Hmm,” she tells him, “I am familiar with the story. I believe while not a true biography, it bears the semblance of a trickster tale. Perhaps Loki or Robin Goodfellow,” she tells him with a small smile.

“Mythology has you very wrong,” he tells her after a few quiet minutes, finally turning to look at her, “Or very right. I haven’t quiet decided.”

“Mythology has many of the old stories wrong,” she offers with a sad smile. “New religions take over and the stories change to suit the passing of time. I may be an agent of chaos, but all necessary change begins with disorder and mayhem, sometimes it’s a little, sometimes it’s a lot. Tricksters are a necessary evil in the nature of human consciousness. I guess you could consider me your very own Jiminy Cricket.”

Nodding, he stops to consider his next question very carefully. “If I wanted to change is there any chance I could convince you to stick around? I kinda have a feeling that I might need an “Erin” to give me the proper nudge every once in a while,” he asks. “Just without the death and destruction. If we have a daughter, which for the first time I am seriously considering the joy of fatherhood, I want to enjoy the full experience. I want to hold her for the first time, bedtime stories, diapers, school plays, homework, driving lessons, walking her down the aisle at her wedding, to holding my grandchildren, everything, but I’d like to do it with you.”

“Well as normal as raising a demi-god could be,” she giggles at him. But leaning over, she whispers, “I think I can fit all that in my lifetime,” before sealing it with a kiss.

 

 

 

 


End file.
